Bowe Bergdahl: We never leave a man behind

Bowe Bergdahl was released by the Taliban in Afghanistan after five years in captivity, but questions swirl around how he was captured and how his release was obtained. Is he a deserter?

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Opinion

Photo by U.S. Army/Getty Images

The surprise and happiness for the friends and family of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has been overcome by the partisan envy tinged with Presidential prejudice has dimmed the homecoming of this 5 year Prisoner of War.

Cries are being heard from the chambers of the U.S. Senate of not being fully informed. And for not the first time, family and friends of the soldiers who were killed while searching for Bergdahl are speaking out to insure that this soldier is not elevated to hero status.

And then there is the “we gave up five terrorists for one” argument. And, of course:”Terrorists now know that all they need do is capture an American Soldier and they will pay …” All of which flies in the face of America’s long standing commitment to bring our POWs back alive in any war. The 13 year debacle that has included Afghanistan will come to an end formally, in about 6 months. The “anybody but Obama” crowd, which includes Presidential wannabes like Florida Senator Marco Rubio, jump past getting our POW home, and go straight to “the President may have broken the law.”

Of central concern to yet another group of “Obama shouldna’ done it” naysayers is the “they will be back in combat and against us in no time” Group who care nothing about legal rights or civil rights for anyone who is not born and bred red, white, and blue. They would continue to keep these five men locked up, incommunicado, on an island 90 miles off the US coast with no trial or any other rights afforded a human in 2014 until hell freezes over. For what? If these guys were angry with us before, imagine how they feel after a decade of this kind of American justice? But they are not the point. “Never leaving a man behind” is.

There has been and will be no outcry from American Veterans organizations, all of whom have as central to their motto bringing home POWs. One group has this in the opening ceremony of every local chapter across the nation and is recited over 7,000 times, somewhere each month.

The President did his duty. Once Bergdahl is recovered, debriefed and fit for duty, he will be processed and judged according to the Uniformed Military Code of Justice.

Yes, some form of public opinion will play into the process, but due process will be afforded this young man. A due process not afforded the 5 Taliban combatants held incommunicado in Cuba for a decade.